In tool and die work, die components or blanking dies often need sharpening to maintain their precision and accuracy in accordance with manufacturing tolerances. A die component is sharpened by grinding off or cutting the appropriate face or surface of the die component in a conventional manner. To replace or compensate for the material ground or cut off of the face of the die component, it is common to place a shim under the die component to level out the die component and keep all components in the tool at the same relationship. The shim consists of a relatively thin piece of material usually having a 0.001 to 0.032 inch thickness. The shim must be formed with substantially the same outer contour or configuration as the die component and must maintain the location of the holes in relation to the outer contour as that of the die component.
These shims have heretofore been made by painting a dye on a piece of metal shim stock and placing the die component on the dye-covered shim stock. The outer contour and the through holes of the die component are then etched into the dye-covered shim stock in a conventional manner. After etching, the die component is removed from the shim stock and any blind holes in the die component are approximately etched in the dye-covered shim stock by hand. Shears, scissors, and hole punches are then used to form the shim according to the etching. This method often results in the loss of the exact relationship between the blind hole locations and the outer contour of the die component which affects the ability of the shims to line up with the die components. If the shims do not exactly line up with the die components, the shims need to be trimmed, reworked, or totally scraped. These deficiencies in the shim producing methods heretofore known substantially increases the time and expense in the shim producing process as well as in the overall die component sharpening process. Accordingly, there is a need for an apparatus and method for making custom shims for die components having blind holes which accurately transfers the relationship between the blind holes and outer contour of the die component to the custom shim.